Ash Slashes Into Evil Dead Season 3!!!

Many a smarty-pants believed that STARZ's "Ash vs Evil Dead" would only last a measly season. Ha! We're now approaching the third, and I don't even need to see a clip (though I've actually seen a couple) to know this one will be as aggressive, humorous and exciting as the first two.

Dana DeLorenzo's Kelly Maxwell, Ray Santiago's Pablo Bolivar, and Lucy Lawless' Ruby Knowby rejoin Bruce Campbell's mighty Ash Williams in the ongoing blood-and-guts fest.

For Season 3, they're teamed with a couple newcomers: Lindsay "Primal" Farris as Dalton, Knight of Sumeria, a modern-day warrior skilled in ancient, evil-fighting ways, and Arielle Carver-O'Neill as the lovely Brandy Barr, Ash's altered-reality daughter. Yep, ya heard right! Ash is a daddy, and I'm sure he'll train his gal in all the best Deadite-slaying techniques. 

From the trailers, it looks like we're in for some school-based weirdness and even some wacky, cartoon animation. That's cool, but the real guarantee to success is placing Ash front and center of all "Necronomicon" manifestations. Also, Campbell has increased Ash's significance since the series started. For example, he's now a small-business owner, though I wonder how much he'll devote to retail when cackling Deadites are right around the bend. Anyway, it would be foolish to downplay Ash in some socially conscious, let's-take-turns-for-attention rotation. I say, let tradition reign with Ash standing as the main one to stumble, wisecrack and kill, kill, kill!!!

If I may be so bold to editorialize, "Evil Dead" is really a saga for virile underdogs, and by its basic nature, it can't help but be politically incorrect within today's wishy-washy light. So what if it offends? I doubt there are many tender teens who would dare care at all about "Evil Dead", anyway. The franchise, after all, deals with harsh, demonized magic, where circumstances aren't so easily remedied by a sissified swipe of a wand. Chainsaws are the tool of of the trade on this turf.

Though I wasn't confident that an "Evil Dead" television series would click (I feared the idea might get stretched thin), I'm grateful that Sam Raimi and Campbell (among others) pursued this path. For as long as these 10-episode jaunts last (Campbell is projecting five seasons), we'll have plenty of gory escapism to swallow; but why stop at the humble fringes of Elk Grove, when time travel can deliver our gang to any number of alternate worlds? Say, wouldn't it be keen to see Ash leading the charge against some futuristic Deadites in a big-screen "Army of Darkness 2"? 

For now, though, the slashing resumes in humble, half-hour installments this February 25 at 9 pm.